Daley rules: Subject to change

May 06, 2005|By John McCarron, who writes, teaches and consults on urban affairs.

One baseball season the pitchers have to take their turn at bat. Next season they are replaced in the batting order by burly stickmen called designated hitters.

Teams that want to compete make adjustments. Maybe they hire a reliable but over-the-hill slugger. Maybe they make room on the roster by carrying one less relief pitcher. But they adjust . . . if they want to play the new game.

Mayor Richard M. Daley, being an American League fan of the White Sox variety, surely understands this. Like me, he might not like the designated hitter, but he knows it's the rule. Not the rule when we were growing up, but the rule nonetheless.

This comes to mind because Mayor Daley seems unwilling to accept the rule changes in his own league--the league of big-city political governance. Which is not surprising, because I'm having a little trouble getting used to the changes myself.

There was a time, not so long ago, when it was generally accepted--even expected--that an elected official would put his or her political supporters on the government payroll. Maybe even hire a supporter's company to do city or state business. But it also was understood that the work of that agency or department had better get done with reasonable efficiency. In fact, staffing one's agency with precinct captains made it all the more important that the public be served. In the old days, people knew exactly who to blame for long lines at the clerk's counter, say, or jagged potholes in the streets.

The new ways, with their civil-service requirements and public-employee unions, have their advantages. Your average unconnected Joe or Jane has a better shot at a public job. But try calling the Social Security office the next time your check is late or the IRS if you have a question. You'll have plenty of time to ponder the difference as you listen to the pre-recorded menus and Muzak. They may not play Henry Mancini at the local ward office, but you can make your beef to a real person, even if he or she listens while stuffing envelopes with campaign fliers.

Reporters understood the old rules. Even a wet-nosed cub knew that, in the weeks before a statewide election, the staffs of our legislative leaders could not be reached at their government offices. They were "in the field," which meant they were coordinating political campaigns in swing districts. If you needed something from an aide to the House speaker or Senate president, you left a message. They'd call back.

But these are different times with different rules. Earlier this week, federal agents descended once more on City Hall to search the files of various departments. There's speculation that the G-men are part of a sweeping investigation of patronage and bribery scams growing out of the city's funky Hired Truck program.

Already, 27 people have been indicted for Hired Truck doings, including a deputy commissioner in the Water Department with big political muscle in the mayor's old 11th Ward Democratic Organization. One lieutenant of Donald Tomczak's, the former No. 2 official in the Water Department, recently cut a plea agreement--presumably in return for testimony about how and why Water Department workers routinely double as political workers. The big question: How far up the chain of command are the illegal orders issued? All this has a here-we-go-again ring. Scandal after scandal has flooded City Hall and lapped to the door of the mayor's office on the fifthfloor. Daley has expressed shock and has vowed, time and again, to drain the mess with good government reforms--a new inspector general here, a new purchasing director there. But somehow, the old ways survive.

Not even the 2003 indictment of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, a friend and kindred spirit of Daley's, spurred the mayor to thoroughly clean house. This amazes, because Ryan could be ruined for the same failing that seems to afflict Daley--not appreciating a rules change. Folks, especially the feds, no longer shrug it off when public employees take bribes or do political work on the taxpayers' clock. Especially not when bribe money buys tickets to political fundraisers. Especially not when it also buys commercial driver's licenses for people who shouldn't drive trucks.

Then again, it may be that Daley couldn't clean house even if he wanted to. It may be that certain city departments--the old political fiefdoms like Water or Streets and Sanitation--are freelancing beyond the reach of the Man on Five. It is possible.

But it's more likely that Rich Daley, having grown up under the old rules--rules based on personal loyalty--is having trouble accepting the new. That's understandable. There's a lot not to like about the politics of TV imagery and the new, automated, indifferent government-by-policy manual.

Still it's a shame. This mayor has accomplished a great deal. Chicago is a far better and healthier city than the broken and divided place he inherited in 1989. What a pity if his legacy were to end in scandal.